Jim Nelson

When G-Dep’s“Special Delivery” came on, no matter where you were, getting hype was the only logical thing to do. That was in ’01, and we haven’t heard much from the former Bad Boy Records rapper since. Trevell “G-Dep” Coleman was sentenced to 15 years in prison for a murder he committed 16 or 17 years ago (he couldn’t really recall when). Last year he turned himself in cold turkey saying he had to make it right with God, according to Global Grind. G-Dep told cops he shot a man three times in a robbery when he was 18 or 19. With his confession on the table, the jury convicted him as guilty.

In a strange turn of events, GQ editor Jim Nelson was on the jury that found G-Dep guilty. In his monthly “Letter from the Editor” for the June 2012 issue, Nelson recalls his feelings about being on the jury that sent a once well known rapper to prison. He writes:

Once the D.A. matched him to the crime, we the jurors wrestled with a mess of things, but couldn’t avoid the evidence. I sometimes wondered if I was fit to judge this man who was capable of acts of public violence and personal honor I couldn’t even imagine having to wrestle with. And I’d think: Hasn’t this man suffered enough? He’s done twenty years in his head already. That’s a slower, more infernal form of justice, the interior kind, isn’t it?

And yeah, tell that to the guy he killed.

We found him guilty, because he was, and no one’s excusing anything. (After the trial, he talked to MTV and, sounding like a man unburdened, thanked “everybody that was involved in the case.”) Still, it’s a heavy feeling: I helped put him away, and yet when I think of someone who did his duty, I think of Trevell Coleman.

Wow. Everything about this story is tough no matter how you slice it. We’re not sure it’s appropriate to give G-Dep props for turning himself in since he did murder someone. But the growth apparent by that decision is at least notable. Kudos to Nelson for his transparency. Unfortunately, no one really wins in the end.